Memory for a cold winter’s night

Memory for a cold winter’s night
Originally uploaded by CW.

I need a mental boost tonight. It has been pouring with rain and my feet are freezing after stepping in a wet patch on the kitchen floor; I think we have a leak. There is an ominous miscolouration in the ceiling. I am surprised at how calm I am at this possibility, especially since the weather bureau is forecasting rain for the rest of the week. (Images of caved-in ceilings flash past and I leave them be – no point getting too stressed – take a deeeeeep breath.)

This picture evokes (faint) memories of the brief time we spent in Langkawi, Malaysia: long lazy days floating in warm soothing water, eating nice food and endless relaxation. We had a really nice time – was it only 3 months ago??

This evening I thought I wasn’t going to write anything, mainly because I couldn’t think of anything to say. Well, no actually I could, but I was stymied by the usual:

1. I have nothing worth saying
2. I am being too self-indulgent
3. I can’t write for nuts

This has been the recording that plays in my head whenever I sit down to write. Why is it so easy to get hung up on expression, punctuation, spelling…? This time I will try to squish all this down and try to keep writing. I need to practise because I am supposed to write for publication this year, as part of my workplan. For some reason my boss has decided I am good at writing; as evidence he has pointed to the emails and minutes of meetings I have written. I have of course protested that this is very flimsy evidence, but he over-ruled me. I suppose I should be grateful that he hasn’t told me I will write and present a conference paper instead. After all writing for academic publication is quite formulaic, and I do have some experience in this area. And it’s just occurred to me that apart from the writing practice, because I am supposed to write about blogs and RSS in academic libraries, writing this blog will also be fieldwork.